1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to transferring a liquid from one container to another container. More specifically, it relates to transferring the liquid by means of a hand-held, siphoning pump apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is old and well known in the art to utilize a piston device to facilitate the siphoning action to transfer liquid from one container to another container such as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,112,963 and 4,232,694. Other prior art devices are known for facilitating the siphoning of liquid from one container to another by utilizing a bellows device in the transfer tubing between the two containers.
None of the prior art described above discloses a means for expeditiously and cleanly shutting off the siphoning action between two containers when the container being filled has reached a desired level. This is precisely the purpose of this invention: a siphoning apparatus that incorporates a shut-off mechanism that will prevent overfilling of the container being filled. This invention will eliminate messy spills, reduce waste in the liquid being transferred (important, especially if the liquid is fuel) and eliminate a potential fire hazard around hot machinery when the liquid is highly flammable. In operation, the siphoning pump apparatus of this invention has an inlet hose or tube inserted in a liquid supply container and an outlet nozzle inserted in the opening of a liquid receiving container which is positioned at a lower height than the liquid supply container. A practical example of use for the siphoning pump apparatus of this invention would be to fill a small container with gasoline from a storage tank.
The siphoning pump apparatus of this invention comprises a main housing including a cylindrically hollow pump body attached to a bellows and a shut-off valve attached to the bottom of the bellows and movable axially within the pump body. The hollow pump body has an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe oppositely connected to the cylindrically hollow pump body. A flexible hose or tube is attached to the inlet pipe by an intermediate connector and a flexible hose or tube is attached to the outlet pipe by an intermediate connector. Connected between the inlet side of the pump body and the bellows is a mechanism for priming and pumping the siphoning pump apparatus to initiate and control the flow of liquid from one container to another, the details of which will be explained below. This mechanism is also used to shut off the flow of liquid from one container to the other; this operation will also be explained below.
It is an object of this invention to provide a hand-held, siphoning pump apparatus which will initiate and facilitate the flow of liquid from one container to another container.
It is another object of this invention to provide a hand-held, siphoning pump apparatus which can manually control the flow of liquid from one container to another container.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a hand-held, siphoning pump apparatus which, during the siphoning process, has a mechanism to easily and quickly shut off the flow of liquid from one container to another container when desired.
Other objects and advantages of the siphoning pump apparatus will become apparent to the reader after reading the description of this invention.